ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the application of structural analysis to the dance, in particular to a sequence of ritual dances performed in the Waina-Sowanda district of the West Sepik Province, Papua New Guinea. In Umeda the cassowaries are accompanied by junior dancers, whose repressed style of dance and red body pamt underline the symbolic significance of the black paint and wild cavortings of the senior cassowaries. Dance meanings originate through a process whereby elements, or components, of nondance motor patterns are seized upon, stereotyped, and are set within a particular context. The ipele are hunters, and in their dance one recognizes more than a hint of ordinary hunting technique. They advance forwards stealthily, bent forwards, keeping a low profile, avoiding unnecessary movement. The stiff-legged, vertical emphasis of the fish dance is progressively reduced as the ritual proceeds, though there are fish in the arena until the very conclusion of the ritual, usually between five and ten at any one time.
